i 


THE 


NAMING  OF  AMERICA. 


A  PAPER 


READ  BEFORE 


THE  WISCONSIN  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES,  ARTS,  AND  LETTERS. 


BY  PEOF.  J.  D.  BUTLER,  LL.  D. 


MADISON,  WIS.: 

ATWOOD  &  CULYER,  PRINTERS  AND  STEREOTYPERS. 
1874. 


E 


THE  NAMING  OF  AMERICA. 


The  name  America  has  been  called  a  monument  of  ingrati 
tude.  It  is  said  to  be  a  misnomer,  and  worse  than  that,  to  owe 
itts  origin  to  fraud. 

Our  continent  owes  its  name  to  Americus,  the  baptismal 
came  of  the  Florentine  navigator,  Yesputius.  Concerning 
him  some  specimens  of  popular  opinion  are  these. 

It  is  charged  that,  "  after  returning  from  Brazil,  he  made  a 
chart  in  which  he  gave  his  name  to  that  part  of  the  main  land. 
The  date  of  his  first  voyage,  as  he  gives  it,  is  unquestionably 
false."  So  says  Appleton's  Cyclopedia.  The  whole  narrative 
of  that  voyage  Irving  pronounces  a  "fabrication."  Morse, 
father  of  the  telegraphic  inventor,  says,  "  Araericus  had  so  in 
sinuated  that  the  glory  of  discovering  the  new  world  belonged 
to  him,  that  the  bold  pretensions  of  a  fortunate  impostor  rob 
bed  Columbus."  Morse  quotes  the  Scotch  Robertson  as  au 
thority.  A  thousand  others  have  done  likewise.  Robertson 
accuses  Americus  "  with  premeditated  usurpation  of  rights,"  etc. 
One  of  the  most  elaborate  of  British  encyclopedias  says,  that 
"  as  the  employment  of  Americus  afforded  him  opportunity,  so 
while  drawing  charts  he  distinguished  the  new  discoveries  by 
the  name  of  America,  as  if  it  were  Amerigo's  land,  so  that  the 
true  discoverer,  notwithstanding  the  complainis  of  the  Span 
iards,  was  defrauded  of  the  honor  that  belonged  to  him." 
Delaplaine  of  Philadelphia  —  father  of  our  Madisonian  pio 
neer,  charges  Americus  with  imposing  his  name  on  the  conti 
nent  by  stratagem,  and  says  he  gained  his  end  by  waiting  till 
after  the  death  of  Columbus  before  putting  forward  his  own 
pretensions. 


Such,  during  three  centuries,  were  the  ideas  prevalent 
regarding  the  naming  of  America. 

Within  the  last  generation,  however,  the  researches  of 
Humboldt  in  his  Examen  critique  of  the  Geography  of  the  Fif 
teenth  Century,  1835-9 ;  of  Henry  Harries  in  his  Biblioiheca 
Americana  Vetustissima,  (New  York,  1866)  ;  of  Yarnhagen  in 
his  monograph  on  Amerigo  Vespucci,  (Lima,  1865),  and  of 
others,  have  vindicated  the  character  of  Americus,  demon 
strated  that  he  discovered  more  of  America  than  any  other 
man,  and  even  rendered  it  probable  that  he  set  foot  on  this 
continent  (June  17,  1497,)  before  either  Columbus  (August  1, 
1498,)  or  Cabot  (June  24,  1497,)  while  his  name  was  bestowed 
on  his  discoveries  not  only  without  his  instigation  but  without 
his  knowledge. 

It  ought  to  be  here  said,  in  passing,  that  but  for  aids  minis 
tered  by  the  Library  of  our  State  Historical  Society,  the  fol 
lowing  paper  could  not  have  been  prepared  in  Wisconsin. 
There  is  no  possibility  of  finding  elsewhere,  within  the  limits 
of  our  state,  the  documents  to  which  every  original  investi 
gator  of  my  theme  must  betake  himself. 

The  earliest  charge  against  Americus,  and  that  the  mother 
of  a  myriad  others,— -fons  et  origo  malorum, — originated  twenty- 
one  years  after  his  death,  and  a  thousand  miles  from  his  horne^ 
These  circumstances  stamp  it  with  suspicion,  and  the  more 
since  no  contemporary  trace  of  similar  aspersions  can  be  de 
tected  in  Spain,  where  he  lived  and  labored. 

It  was  in  1533,  and  in  Nuremberg,  that  John  Schoner  re 
marked  in  a  geography  he  issued  then  and  there  (Opusculum 
Geographicum),  that  "Americus  sailing  westward  from  Spain 
and  coasting  Asia,  believed  a  region  which  belongs  to  upper 
India  to  be  an  island,  which  he  appointed  to  be  called  by  his 
own  name." 

Schoner's  words  were  :  "  Americus  Vesputius  maritima  loca 
Indite  superioris,  ex  Hispaniis  navigio  ad  occidentem  perlus- 
trans,  earn  partem  quae  superioris  Indiae  est,  credidit  esse  insu- 


lam  quam  a  suo  nomine  vocari  instituit.  (H.  Harries,  p.  304.) 
This  passage  affords  no  proof  that  Schoner  blamed  Americus 
for  thus  baptizing  his  finding  with  his  own  name.  But  there 
is  no  doubt  that  he  did.  Yet  the  first  name  which  Schoner 
himself  gave  to  the  southern  half  of  our  continent  on  a  globe 
he  had  made  thirteen  years  before,  and  which  we  may  see  to 
day  in  the  city  library  at  Nuremberg,  is  America.  Besides, 
eighteen  years  before, — or  in  1515,  the  same  Schoner  had  pub 
lished  a  geography  in  which  we  read,  "  America  or  Amerigen 
a,  novus  mundus, — and  fourth  part  of  the  globe,  named  after 
its  discoverer  Americus  Yesputius,  a  man  of  sagacious  mind, 
who  found  it  in  the  year  1497."  (H.  Harries,  p.  142.)  As 
Schoner  subsequently  censured  Americus,  he  must  have 
changed  his  mind  after  1515.  It  was  after  that  time  perhaps, 
that  he  first  learned  about  the  abuse  of  Columbus  by  Span 
iards,  and  indignant  at  his  wrongs  naturally  attributed  the  de 
frauding  him  of  fame  to  the  man  who  had  gained  most  by  that 
fraud.  Yet  the  truth  is,  there  is  no  proof  that  Americus  ever 
gave  his  own  name  either  ou  maps  or  otherwise  to  any  portion 
of  hir.  findings, — though  most  other  voyagers  in  all  ages  have 
thus  perpetuated  their  fame. 

The  slur  cast  on  Americus  by  Schoner  was  repeated  and 
exaggerated,  especially  by  Las  Casas  in  his  Historia  de  las 
Indias,  a  work  not  completed  for  forty-seven  years  after  the 
death  of  Americus,  till  it  reached  the  pitch  indicated  at  the 
commencement  of  this  article. 

But  no  map  with  the  name  "  America  "  on  it  of  an  earlier 
date  than  1520,  is  known  to  exist,  or  to  have  ever  existed  any 
where.  This  first  map  appeared  in  Vienna,  and  long  before 
any  bearing  the  name  America  was  issued  in  Spain,  although 
its  own  date  was  eight  years  after  the  death  of  Americus.  If 
any  suggestions  of  his  led  to  its  issue,  they  must  have  been 
those  fabulous,  or  at  least  thaumaturgic,  "  poisons  given  to  work 
a  long  while  after." 

But  the  maker  of  this  Vienna  map  had  no  thought  of  doing 


6 

injustice  to  Columbus.  It  is  true  he  printed  "America"  in 
capitals  on  the  southerly  portion  of  the  new  found  region 
which  extends  no  further  north  than  the  equator,  but  he 
intended  to  call  only  a  portion  of  that  region  by  that  name, 
for  beneath  the  word  America  the  word  province,  "  Provincia,?r 
is  subjoined.  America,  as  then  and  thus  designated,  was  a 
smaller  part  of  the  West  Indies  than  the  West  Indies  now  are 
of  America. 

Thus  much  of  honor  may  have  been  deserved  by  Americusr 
who  possibly  first  discovered  the  American  main  land,  and  at 
all  events  was  the  first  explorer  of  more  of  it  than  even  Colum 
bus. 

Moreover,  on  the  Vienna  map,  above  the  name  America  so 
that  it  may  well  apply  to  the  north  shore  of  South  America 
and  the  West  Indies,  we  read  this  epigraph:  "In  the  year 
1497  this  land  with  the  islands  adjacent  was  discovered  by 
Columbus,  a  Genoese  by  order  of  the  King  of  Castile." 

The  original  text  is,  Anno,  1497,  hsec  terra  cum  adjacentibus 
insulis  inverita  est  per  Columbum,  Januensem  ex  mandate* 
regis  Castellae.  AMERICA,  provincia. 

On  this  map,  as  on  all  before  it  and  on  legions  afterward  y 
the  two  portions  of  America  are  widely  sea-severed.  The 
truth  is  they  were  long  regarded  by  no  means  as  Siamese 
twins,  but  as  belonging  to  different  continents. 

Men  find  what  they  seek.  Columbus  voyaged  for  India, 
thought  his  first  landing  was  there,  and  forced  his  crew  to 
swear  they  thought  so  too  by  threatening  to  cut  out  their 
tongues.  (H.  Stevens,  "  Historical  and  Geographical  Notes.") 
Like  too  many  others,  he  forgot  that  voting  asses  to  be  horses 
never  made  long  ears  short. 

Columbus  called  his  finding  the  main  land  or  islands  of  In 
dia  beyond  the  Ganges  (Insulce  Indice  supra  Gangem.}     Mani 
fold  memorials  of  his  mistake  we  see  to  this  day.    Witness  our 
aborigines  from  pole  to   pole  called  "Indians;"  witness  the 
archipelago  between  the  Americas  now  as  in  the  beginning, 


"  West  Indies  ;  "  witness  Las  Indias,  the  Spanish  official  name 
including  even  now  all  our  continent ;  witness  the  words, 
"King  of  the  Indies,"  Indiarum  rex,  stamped  on  every  Spanish 
dollar  we,  ever  saw. 

Show  Agassiz  one  bone,  and  he  would  reconstruct  any  ani 
mal  ;  so  when  Columbus  beheld  one  corner  of  trans-Gangetic 
India,  that  is  of  Eastern  Asia,  he  could  map  the  whole  of  it, 
for  that  eastern  coast  line  was  known  to  him  from  the  relations 
of  overland  travelers.  The  configuration  of  that  Asiatic  line 
is  not  without  resemblances  to  that  of  eastern  North  America. 
Hence  the  delusion  lasted  longer,  and  each  new  finding  pieced 
out  the  Asiatic  map,  like  a  new  patch  sewed  on  an  old  gar 
ment.  A  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  death  of  Columbus, 
the  prince  of  German  geographers  still  maintained  that  Mexico 
conquered  bv  Cortez  ten  years  before,  was  the  Chinese  city 
Quinsay,  so  excessively  extolled  by  Marco  Polo.  So  Hum- 
boldt  tells  us  in  his  Cosmos. 

Syllacius,  the  first  Italian  who  described  the  first  voyage  of 
Columbus,  in  his  **  opusculum  de  insulis  nuper  repertis"  assured 
both  that  that  navigator  had  pushed  through  to  trans-Gangetic 
India,  and  perhaps  also  satisfied  that  a  ship  sailing  westward 
must  slip  off  from  the  world,  represents  Columbus  as  circum 
navigating  Africa.  Ultra  ^Equatoris  metas,  usque  ad  Arabiae 
beatas  insulas.  Persistence  in  mistaking  North  America  for 
Asia  was  one  among  countless  illustrations  that  false  knowl 
edge  is  worse  than  ignorance ;  a  truth  so  well  understood  by 
Isocrates,  who  alwa}7s  exacted  double  fees  from  students  who 
came  from  another  teacher,  one  for  unteaching  as  well  as  one 
for  teaching. 

Among  the  results  of  Columbus's  error,  the  Pacific  was 
called  the  South  Sea,  being  supposed  to  lie  almost  altogether 
south  of  the  equator,  and  the  better  half  of  the  western  hemi 
sphere  was  reckoned  by  many  an  appendix  of  Asia,  even  un 
til  Behring  passed  through  his  Straits  only  four  years  before 
the  birth  of  George  Washington. 


Faith  in  the  connection  ot  North  America  with  Asia  out 
lived  many  a  proof  to  the  contrary.  It  was  scarcely  less  cred 
ulous  than  the  "  hard  shell "  citizens  of  the  Egyptian  section 
of  Illinois,  who  are  reported  to  continue  deaf  to  all  reports 
concerning  the  death  of  "  Old  Hickory,"  and  so  still  cast  their 
Presidential  votes  for  Jackson. 

But  this  Asiatic  mania,  if  I  may  so  call  jt,  was  much  less 
lasting  in  reference  to  South  than  to  North  America.  That 
portion  of  our  hemisphere  in  fact  approaches  the  old  world 
nearer  than  the  northern  half  of  it  does,  and  its  actual  distance 
from  Africa  was  under-rated.  On  some  early  maps  its  eastern 
most  cape  was  set  down  as  no  more  than  ten  degrees  west  of  the 
Cape  Yerd  group.  Its  outline  was  also  ascertained  by  nau 
tical  survey,  while  the  corresponding  coast  of  North  America 
was  still  mapped  after  the  model  of  Asia. 

As  neither  the  position  nor  the  coast-line  of  South  America 
had  anything  in  common  with  European  ideas  respecting 
Asia  or  the  globe  southeast  of  it,  it  was  at  once  regarded  as  a 
discovery  veritably  new.  Accordingly;  while  the  West  Indies 
were  viewed  as  only  an  extension  of  the  Canaries,  and  Colum 
bus  was  thought  to  have  discovered  only  some  other  islands 
further  toward  the  Indies  of  the  East  (Insulas  alias  incognitas 
versus  Indos),  and  North  America  was  drawn  after  an  Asiatic 
pattern,  or  held  at  most  for  a  thin  barrier  on  the  road  to  Asia 
and  cut  through  by  straits  if  not  by  seas, — men  were  already 
satisfied  that  South  America  was  nothing  less  than  a  continent, 
and  so  sought  for  it  a  name.  No  man  did  more  to  make  South 
America  thus  known  to  the  old  world  than  Americus.  He 
was  first  to  trace  its  shore  line  through  fifty  degrees  of  latitude 
even  down  to  Patagonia. 

"As  early  as  1501,  Yespuccius  proposed  to  double  the  ex 
tremity  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere."  H.  Harries,  p.  226. 
Would  it  have  been  surprising  if  he  had  appeared  in  the  ear 
liest  maps  and  books  honored  with  a  name  in  the  world  of 
wonder  he  had  revealed?  But  he  does  not? 


9 

The  oldest  map  containing  engraved  delineations  of  the 
new  countries  was  published  at  Eome  in  1508.  On  this  we 
see  the  southern  portion  of  our  hemisphere  which  stretches 
through  more  than  fifty  degrees  of  latitude  and  sixty  of  longi 
tude,  inscribed,  "  Land  of  the  Holy  Cross,  or  New  World." 
No  America  was  yet  dreamed  of.  Says  Roselly  de  Lorgues, 
"  The  discovery  having  been  made  under  the  auspices  ot  the 
cross,  and  for  the  triumph  of  the  cross,  the  new  land  was 
usually  designated  on  maps  by  the  sign  and  name  of  the 
cross.  (Terra  sanctae  Crucis.")  Nor  yet  was  there  any  other 
western  continent  in  existence,  according  to  the  notions  of  the 
Roman  mapmaker.  His  nearest  land  west  of  Cuba  is  Bengal. 
North  of  it  the  nearest  land  is  that  explored  by  the  Cabots, 
which  is  mapped  as  a  part  of  Asia,  and  conterminous  with 
Gog  and  Magog.  This  map  (11^x16  inches)  was  drawn  by 
Euysch,  a  German  navigator,  who  is  believed  to  have  sailed 
with  Americus. 

It  was  forbidden  to  infringe  its  copyright  or  that  of  the 
geography  which  contained  it,  on  pain  of  excommunication, 
but  the  price  of  the  work  was  to  be  fixed  by  the  Pope's 
librarian.  Such  a  defense  of  the  public  from  booksellers,  and 
of  authors  from  pirates  is  now,  alas !  one  of  the  Lost  Arts. 

Humboldt  arguing  that  Americus  never  knew  that  he  had 
discovered  a  continent,  holds  that  the  words  Mundus  Novus 
(new  world),  in  the  fifteenth  century,  meant  no  more  than  any 
region  new  found,  no  matter  though  of  small  extent.  Ad 
mitting  the  phrase  to  have  been  often  thus  used,  it  clearly 
was  not  as  to  the  case  in  hand.  The  title  of  the  first  German 
edition  (1505)  of  the  third  voyage  of  Americus  is,  "  Concern 
ing  a  new  found  region  which  may  well  be  named  a  world." 
Von  der  neu  gefundenen  Region  die  wohl  eine  Welt  genennt  mag 
werden.  Again  the  Mundus  Novus  on  Ruysch's  Roman  map 
was  well-nigh  as  extensive  as  we  now  know  South  America  to 
be,  and  larger  than  Europe.  But  this  map  appeared  four 
years  before  the  death  of  Americus.  Can  we  believe  that  he 


10 

himself  knew  less  concerning  the  greatness  of  his  own  dis 
coveries  than  was  manifest  on  maps  to  all  the  world  ? 

It  is  further  worth  notice  that  while  the  words  mundus 
novus  head  the  very  first  publication  of  the  voyages  of  Amer- 
icus,  they  never  occur  in  the  title  of  any  one  among  the  twenty- 
one  works  which  were  issued  in  the  fifteenth  century  in  rela 
tion  to  Columbus. 

One  reason  may  be  that  the  islands — or  at  least  the  main« 
land  which  Columbus  brought  to  light  needed  in  his  opinion- 
no  name.  According  to  his  foregone  conclusion  they  had 
been  named  already  with  appellations  time-honored  and  in> 
part  sacred. 

A  principal  reason  then  why  our  continent  does  not  bear 
the  name  of  Columbus,  was  that  he  and  his  contemporaries 
supposed  there  was  no  continent  in  existence  which  still  re^ 
mained  without  a  name.  Bombastes  cut  off  only  the  hand  ofc 
his  slain  enemy,  because  the  head  had  been  cut  off  already. 
Janus  was  never  struck  on  the  back  of  the  head  because  he 
was  all  lace,  and  time  cannot  be  seized  by  the  hind-lock  for  he- 
is  bald  behind. 

The  first  landing  of  Columbus  on  the  American  main  was  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco.  He  thought  it  the  paradisaical 
Gihon.  He  died  assured  that  he  had  there  bathed  in  one  of 
the  rivers  of  Eden.  According  to  his  faith,  "  the  airs  of  Para 
dise  did  fan  its  shores,  and  angels  oificed  all."  Small  thanks 
would  he  have  rendered  anyone  who  had  proved  that  his  land 
ing  was  not  in  Paradisaical  Asia,  but  that  it  was  of  the  earth 
earthy.  His  celestial  dream  he  would  have  scorned  to  ex 
change  for  stamping  his  name  on  any  continent.  If  forced  to 
give  up  his  beau  ideal  for  a  continental  reality,  his  must  have- 
been  the  feelings  of  Lessing's  hero  in  Nathan  the  Wise,  who 
at  the  denouement  found  out  that  the  lady  whom  he  had 
adored  with  the  love  of  forty  thousand  brothers,  and  who  loved 
him  as  much,  was  after  all  only  his  own  sister. 

Should  a  less  sentimental  image  be  demanded,  Columbus,  \L 


11 

disenchanted  of  his  golden  delusion,  may  be  compared  to  a 
Californian  pioneer  bringing  to  the  mint  a  load  of  glittering 
specimens  from  far  off  placers,  and  there  convinced  that  they 
were  one  and  all  iron  pyrites, — fool's  gold  and  nothing  more. 

Columbus  fancying  America  to  be  Asia  lay  under  a  mistake- 
analogous  to  that  of  the  Northmen  in  the  tenth  century.  They 
sought  no  collective  name  for  their  great  discovery,  because 
they  were  convinced  the  America  they  had  found  was  no  morer 
than  an  outlying  fragment  of  Europe. 

But  how  was  greatness  thrust  upon  Americus?  How  did 
his  name,  at  first  too  plebeian  to  appear  on  title-pages,  or  to  in- 
dicate  a  cape  or  bay,  make  its  way  into  books  and  maps,  and, 
supplanting  all  other  appellations  of  the  New  "World,  gain  a 
glory  eclipsing  whatever  is  reflected  from  all  such  names  as 
New  Spain,  New  England,  New  France,  etc.  ? 

Americus  wrote  several  private  letters,  about  his  voyages, 
to  friends  in  Italy  and  France,  perhaps  in  1502,  but  made  no- 
claims  to  give  his  name  to  any  locality.  These  accounts  of  his 
discoveries  were  soon  published,  and  were  sometimes  headed 
with  his  name,  as  Nouo  Hondo  da  Alberico  Vesputio,  Milan 
1508.  More  commonly  their  titles  were  complimentary  to- 
some  sovereign,  for  that  servility  was  then  ubiquitous,  which, 
to-day,  in  British  army  bulletins  forbids  naming  any  non 
commissioned  officer,  even  though  a  victory  should  be  alto 
gether  due  to  him. 

Thus  the  title-page  of  the  earliest  German  edition  of  the- 
letters  of  Americus  (1509)  is:  "This  little  book  relates  how 
the  two  most  illustrious  Lords,  Ferdinand  King  of  Castile,  and 
Emanuel  King  of  Portugal,  have  searched  through  the  vast- 
seas,— discovered  many  islands,  and  a  new  world,"  etc.  (Dies 
Bfichlein  saget  wie  die  zwei  durchliichtigsten  Herren  Fer^ 
nandus,  K.  zii  Castilien  und  Herr  Emanuel,  K.  zu  Portugal 
haben  das  weyte  mdr  erziichet  und  funden  vil  Insulen,  und 
ein  Neiiwe  welt  von  wilden  nackenden  Leiiten,  vormals  un- 
bekannt.) 


12 

Another  edition  in  Latin,  was  entitled,  "  concerning  the 
Antarctic  region  formerly  discovered  by  the  King  of  Portugal. 
(De  ora  Antarctica  per  regem  PorlugaUice  pridem  inventa)  The 
earliest  Italian  edition  was  styled,  "  All  the  navigations  of  the 
King  of  Spain."  (Libretto  de  tutta  le  Navigazione  del  Re  di 
Spagna  Isok  trovate  novamente  per  el  Re  di  Spagna,  1495.)  That 
monarch  voyaged  as  easily  as  Solomon  built  the  temple  with 
out  lifting  a  finger,  and  no  one  has  profited  more  by  the  law- 
maxim  :  quod  facit  per  alium  facit  per  se. 

Perhaps  it  was  his  wile  who,  accustomed  to  do  all  drudgery 
by  proxy,  when  urged  by  her  confessor  to  do  penance,  said : 
•u  O  yes,  I  will.  I  will  make  my  maids  of  honor  fast  all 
through  Lent ! " 

In  many  editions  the  motto  was : 

"  Cum  Dcus  astra  regat  et  terrse  climata  Caesar, 
Nee  tellus  nee  iis  sidera  majus  habent." 

As  God  in  heaven,  so  kings  on  earth  bear  sway; 
Above,  below,  no  greater  names  than  they. 

The  voyages  of  Americus  were  published  separately  many 
times,  but,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  never  together  till  the 
year  1507,  and  then  in  Lorraine  at  Saint-Die.  A  professor  in 
the  gymnasium  there,  born  in  the  neighboring  Freiburg,  was 
then  publishing  a  Latin  cosmography.  While  thus  engaged, 
he  fell  in  with  the  letters  of  Americus  in  French,  translated 
them  into  Latin,  dedicated  them  to  Rene  the  local  potentate, 
and  added  them  to  his  other  geographical  chapters.  His  work 
was  entitled,  "  Cosmographioe  introductio.  *  *  *  Insuper, 
quatuor  Americi  Yespucii  navigationes." 

Oa  the  title-page  he  mentioned  this  addition  as  "  things  un 
known  to  Ptolemy  and  discovered  by  moderns."  The  pro 
fessors  name  was  Waldzeemuller.  After  the  fashion  of  his 
time  he  latinograecised  it  as  Hylacomylus.  In  a  note  treating 
of  the  progress  of  discovery  in  the  old  continents,  he  adds : 
u  but  now  another  fourth  part  has  been  found  by  Americus,  as 


13 

will  be  seen  in  the  sequel.  I  see  not  why  any  one  can  right- 
fully  forbid  it  to  be  called  Amerige,  or  America  as  if  the  land 
of  Americus  after  Americus,  its  discoverer,  a  man  of  sagacious- 
mind,  since  both  Europe  and  Asia  have  derived  their  names- 
from  women."  So  long  ago  were  men  fearful  that  women 
were  getting  more  than  their  rights  !  In  the  margin  of  this- 
note  he  printed  the  word  America. 

The  exact  words  of  the  St.  Die  cosmographer  are  as  follows  : 

"Nunc  vero  et  hae  partes  sunt  latius  lustraUe,  et  alia  quarta 
pars  per  Americum  Yesputium  (ut  in  sequentibus  audietur)' 
inventa  est,  quam  non  video  cur  quis  jure  vetet  ab  Americo 
inventore,  sagacis  ingenii  viro,  Amerigen,  quasi  Americi  ter 
rain,  sive  Americam  dicendam :  cum,  et  Europa  et  Asia  a 
mulieribus  sua  sortitaa  sint  nomina.  Ejus  situra  et  gentium^ 
mores  et  binis  Americi  navigationibus  quse  sequnntur  liquide' 
intelligi  dant"  UbrWjf 

This  suggestion,  according  to  our  best  knowledge,  was  the 
first  ever  made  for  giving  honor  to  Americus  and  a  collective 
name  to  his  findings.  It  was  published  in  1507,  on  the  25th 
of  April,  which  is  accordingly  the  birth-day  of  the  American 
name.  But  it  never  has  been  pretended  that  Americus  knew 
Hylacomylus  or  could  by  possibility  have  incited  him  to  bring 
forward  his  name. 

It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  name  America  was  thtis- 
proposed  in  1507.  This  date  refutes  and  renders  ridiculous 
the  pretense  that  Americus  first  foisted  the  name  into  maps 
when  he  was  head  of  the  Spanish  cartological  bureau,  for  he 
was  not  appointed  to  that  position  till  a  year  afterward.  Could 
lie  be  guilty  of  a  sin  that  was  committed  before  he  was  born  T 
No  more  than  he  could  be  guilty  of  Adam's  sin.  No  more 
than  a  preacher  can  be  called  to  account  for  his  hearers'  naps 
if  they  begin  before  he  stands  up  for  sermonizing. 

Besides,  as  already  stated,  the  earliest  map  on  which  the- 
word  America  is  inscribed,  was  made  eight  years  after  the- 
death  of  Americus,  and  that  name  was  introduced  on  Spanish* 
maps  later  than  any  where  else. 


14 

If  any  further  vindication  of  Americas  from  the  stain  of 
stealing  the  laurels  of  Columbus  could  be  needed  we  should 
BQG  it  in  the  fact  that  Columbus,  to  the  very  close  ot  his  life 
.and  his  .son  after  him,  though  very  jealous  for  his  father's 
glory,  remained  the  fast  friends  of  Americus.  The  charges  of 
Las  Casas,  Humboldt  considers  refuted  by  the  life-long  friend 
ship  of  the  Columbus  family  with  Americus.  He  also  remarks 
that  those  charges  are  very  mild  near  the  beginning  of  his 
book,  which  was  written  scon  after  the  death  of  Americus, 
but  very  harsh  near  the  end  of  it  which  was  written  thirty 
years  afterward.  We  may,  therefore,  appeal  from  Philip  drunk 
to  Philip  sober — from  Las  Casas  in  his  dotage  to  Las  Casas 
in  his  best  years. 

Again,  Cuba  was  believed  to  be  the  continent  till  after  the 
.death  of  Columbus,  and  he  discovered  that  island  in  1492. 
Americus  sharing  in  this  belief  had  no  motive  to  date  his  first 
voyage  1497,  unless  it  then  took  place.  Why  forge  and 
falsify  only  for  the  name  of  discovering  what,  as  was  firmly 
believed,  had  already  been  five  years  discovered? 

It  was  once  my  fortune  to  visit  Freiburg — the  native  town 
of  the  namer  of  America.  My  journey  thither  in  1868  was  re 
paid  by  its  mountain  scenery,  its  streets  irrigated  with  living 
water  after  the  manner  of  Salt  Lake, — its  cathedral  unsurpassed 
in  Germany  till  Strasburg  was  captured,  and  its  associations 
with  the  inventor  of  gunpowder.  But  I  was  not  then  aware 
that  it  had  given  birth  to  the  god-father  of  our  western  hemis- 
phera  Had  I  been,  its  charms  would  for  me  have  been  tea- 
fold.  I  also  passed  near  Saint  Die  where  the  name  "  Ameri 
ca"  was  first  printed,  and  perhaps  first  written.  Had  this 
fact  been  known  to  me  how  gladly  would  I  have  turned  aside 
to  gaze  upon  that  cradle  of  our  name.  However  small  to  the 
eye  it  would  have  been  great  to  the  mind.  Still  greater 
would  have  been  my  interest  in  it,  had  I  not  been  ignorant 
that  a  head-master  of  the  school  there,  Pierre  D'Ailly,  had  writ 
ten  the  picture  of  the  world — Imago  mundi,  which  stimulated 


15 

Columbus  to  his  great  voyage,  and  which  is  still  to  be  seen  in 
Seville  with  marginalia  penned  by  the  hand  of  Columbus 
himself.  Americans  will  ere  long  pilgrim  to  Saint  Die,  as  the 
mother  of  their  name,  and  so  the  source  of  a  stream  flowing 
further  than  the  Mississippi,  yes  from  pole  to  pole. 

From  the  peaks  of  the  Yosges,  towering  above  the  college 
oi  Hylacomyius,  you  can  almost  espy  Strasburg,  which  claims 
the  invention  of  printing,  Freiburg  where  gunpowder  was  first 
compounded  in  Christendom,  and  Spires  where  Protestantism 
first  assumed  its  name. 

The  new  name  for  the  new  continent,  proposed  by  Hylaco 
myius  in  1507,  was  employed  about  five  years  after  by  Vadia- 
nus  of  Vienna,  who  indeed,  until  recent  researches,  was 
mistaken  for  its  author.  But  three  years  sooner,  or  in  1509,  it 
was  adopted  by  an  anonymous  writer,  who  then  published,  in 
the  neighboring  Strasburg,  his  "  Globus  Mundi,  or  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  world  as  a  round  globe,  whereby  every  man,  even 
if  he  do  not  know  much,  can  see  with  his  own  eyes  that  there 
are  antipodes  whose  feet  are  opposite  ours,  together  with 
many  other  things  concerning  the  fourth  part  of  the  earth  re 
cently  discovered  by  Americus." 

Here,  in  this  title,  is  one  secret  of  the  special  importance 
attached  to  discoveries  in  South  America,  and  hence  to  the 
exploits  of  Americus.  His  logic  of  facts  rooted  up  two  dog 
mas  which  had  been  viewed  as  essential  to  orthodoxy,  one 
that  there  could  not  be  antipodes,  and  the  other  that  the  equa 
torial  zone  was  too  hot  to  be  inhabited.  A  commentator  on 
Albertus  Magnus  soon  detecting  in  him  the  same  heretical 
taint,  exclaimed  in  1514,  as  if  at  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy. 
"Lo!  Albertus,  two  centuries  ago,  conceived  that  the  earth 
might  be  inhabited  beyond  the  equator,  as  Americus  has  found 
and  described  it" — things  not  in  heaven  and  on  earth  but 
under  the  earth. 

Interest  in  occidental  exploration  turned  mainly  southward 
for  another  reason,  namely,  that  the  first  adventurers  to  the 


16 

West  Indies  and  northward,  reported  much  codfish,  but  no 
gold.  Where  the  carcase  is  there  the  eagles  gather.  Ubi  mel, 
ibi  apes. 

Onward  from  1511  the  name  America  appears  in  most 
geographies,  and  from  1520  in  most  maps  But  it  long  de 
noted  no  more  than  a  portion  of  our  southern  hemisphere 
which  was  itself  up  to  the  year  1548  reckoned  rather  an  island 
in  the  West  Indies  than  a  continent.  The  earliest  known  MS, 
map  bearing  the  name  America,  is  supposed  to  date  from 
1514  It  was  drawn  by  Leonardo  da  Yinci,  and  is  among  the 
treasures  of  the  British  museum.  (R  H.  Major,  p.  388.)  The 
extension  of  the  name  is  worth  tracing,  yet  not  easy  to  trace. 

On  the  Nuremberg  globe  of  1520  the  southern  part  of  the 
new  continent  is  inscribed,  America  vel  Brasilia  sive  papagalli 
•terra,  and  the  name  for  some  decades  after  seems  no  more  than 
commensurate  with  Brazil. 

The  name  "America"  in  English  cannot  be  traced  back 
of  1520,  and  then  it  appears  in  an  anonymous  work  "  touching 
dyvers  straunge  regyons  and  the  new  found  landys."  It  is 
thus  introduced : 

"  But  this  new  lands  founde  lately 
Been  called  America  by  cause  only 
Americus  dyd  first  them  fynde." 

A  year  or  two  later  was  issued  the  first  English  book  de 
scriptive  of  this  America.  In  this  book  the  new  region  is 
spelled  "  Armenica."  A  century  later  Lord  Bacon  (vol.  xiii. 
p.  196),  speaks  of  "  Mexico,  Peru,  Chili  and  other  parts  of  the 
West  Indies." 

The  Landshut  cosmography  of  1524  calls  America  now  a 
fourth  part  of  the  world — but  adds  that  it  is  an  island.  "Quo- 
niam  mari  undique  clauditur  insula  merito  appellatur" 

Copernicus,  in  1543,  writes  that  his  theory  was  confirmed 
anew  by  taking  into  account  the  islands  brought  to  light  in 
his  time,  and  especially  America,  which,  owing  to  its  magni 
tude  still  unascertained,  men  thought  to  be  another  world,  alter 


17 

orbis  terrarum.  The  great  astronomer  was  before  his  age  in 
geography  also.  So  potent  is  a  name  that  men  still  called 
geographies  "  Ptolemies,"  as  we  now  call  a  dictionary  "Webster, 
though  so  metamorphosed  that  Webster  would  not  recognize 
it  But  the  Ptolemy  of  1540,  only  three  years  before  the 
death  of  Copernicus,  inscribes  the  map  of  the  western  hemis 
phere  Novce  Insulce,  and  its  southern  portion  Insula  Atlantica 
quam  vacant  Brasilii  et  Americam.  In  the  Ptolemy  two  years 
later  there  is  still  no  collective  name  for  the  north  half  of  our 
continent,  but  a  strait  runs  through  it  labeled  per  hoc  /return 
tier  patet  ad  Molucas. 

The  rapids  at  Montreal  were  named  La  Chine  (China)  be 
cause  the  pioneers  there  thought  they  could  ascend  the  St.  Law 
rence  even  into  the  Celestial  Empire. 

Nor  were  these  Frenchmen  so  far  wrong  as  were  their  more 
learned  compatriots,  for  in  "  the  Mirror  of  the  World,"  issued 
at  Lyons  in  1546,  three  years  after  the  death  of  Copernicus, 
we  read  :  "  Since  Ptolemy  no  land  called  a  continent  has  been 
discovered  except  one  called  America,  about  which  we  are  not 
well  assured,  and  several  islands.  As  to  America  (which  the 
writer  also  calls  L'Ameque,)  I  place  little  reliance  on  those 
who  have  been  there,  but  speak  of  it  so  obscurely  that  one 
cannot  guess  what  their  dreams  mean."  Two  years  before, 
the  Brazil  map  is  inscribed  America  seu  Insula  Brazilii.  The 
Antwerp  cosmography  of  1545  inscribes  the  map  of  the  West 
ern  World  on  the  southern  part  America,  and  on  the  northern, 
which  is  a  narrow,  elongated  prolongation,  Baccalearum,  a 
word  which  means  land  of  codfish. 

At  length,  in  the  Yenice  Ptolemy  of  1548,  forty-seven  years 
after  the  discovery  of  Brazil,  the  southern  half  of  the  New 
World  is  mapped  as  a  continent.  A  partir  de  1548  toutes  les 
cartes  quefai  examinees  represented  I'Amerique  meridionale  comme 
un  continent.  So  savs  Santarem,  but  his  meaning  is  not  clear, 
for  he  seems  also  to  say  that  the  map  of  South  America  is  in 
scribed  Castitt  del  Oro,  Golden  Castile. 


18 

'The  new  name  America,  having  mastered  the  Southern, 
that  is  the  largest,  richest  and  best  known  half  of  the  West 
ern  world,  naturally  spread  over  its  outlying  peninsulas,  and 
the  Northern  portion  was  still  either  viewed  as  nothing  more 
than  one  of  them,  or  most  of  it  was  deemed  more  likely  to 
be  joined  to  Asia  than  to  South  America. 

At  some  date,  however,  between  1548  and  1570,  North 
America  had  also  grown  in  men's  minds  to  the  dimensions  of 
a  continent,  or  at  least  to  half  that  size,  for  on  a  map  of  1570, 
the  entire  new  world  is  inscribed  America.  This  map  of  1570 
is  the  most  ancient  of  all  the  goodly  number  in  the  library  of 
our  Wisconsin  Historical  Society.  Its  imprint  is  Antwerp. 
This  map  of  the  new  world  is  inscribed  near  the  Arctic  circle, 
America,  sive  India  Nova.  The  northern  and  southern  por 
tions  are  described  as  the  northern  and  southern  peninsulas, 
but  neither  of  them  is  inscribed  with  any  general  name.  It 
is  added  that  the  southern  peninsula  was  called  Terra  Firma 
by  Spaniards. 

This  map  also  shows  a  southern  continent  encircling  the 
whole  globe  and  at  certain  points  almost  touching  the  equator. 

There  is  a  wide  channel  from  Baffin's  Bay  to  the  Pacific, 
although  our  portion  of  the  northern  peninsula  stretches  so  far 
westward  that  its  western  shore  is  almost  in  sight  of  Japan. 

When  the  name  America  was  extended  from  pole  to  pole 
it  lost  its  hold  on  Brazil,  and  it  would  seem  for  a  time  on  the 
two  grand  divisions  of  the  New  World. 

In  Heylin's  "  Cosmographie,"  long  in  great  repute,  published 
in  1652,  we  read  that  u  the  fourth  and  last  part  of  the  world 
is  called  by  some  and  most  aptly  the  New  World,  but 
the  most  usual  and  yet  somewhat  the  more  improper  name 
is  America."  "The  whole  is  naturally  divided  into  two  great 
peninsulas,  whereof  that  towards  the  north  is  called  Mexicana, 
and  that  towards  the  south  hath  the  name  Peruana."  On 
Heylin's  map,  however,  the  northern  peninsula  is  inscribed 
"America  Mexicana,"  the  southern  "Peruana  America." 


19 

One  question  remains,  and  that  too  important  to  be  now  con 
sidered. 

It  is  whether  Americas  really  landed  on  the  American  main 
before  Columbus  and  Cabot.  Yarnhagen  claims  that  he  did, 
and  so  that  America  is  no  misnomer  after  all. 

He  must  have  so  landed  if  his  date  is  correct,  and  Hum- 
boldt  has  demonstrated  that  his  voyages  are  no  where  willfully 
falsified. 

But  however  this  may  be,  thus  much  seems  clear,  that 
Americus  next  to  Columbus  best  deserved  to  have  the  New 
World  named  for  him,  that  he  never  sought  that  honor  by  any 
means  fair  or  foul,  that  the  name  originated  without  his  knowl 
edge,  never  appeared  on  a  map  until  after  his  death,  and  then 
was  Icng  confined  to  a  region  smaller  than  that  he  had  him 
self  discovered. 

It  is  pleasant  to  see  clouds  of  suspicion  rolled  away  from 
.any  character.  Thereafter  we  think  better  of  our  race,  and 
learn  to  believe  Satan  himself  not  so  black  as  he  is  painted. 
What  a  good  time  was  that  when  men  ceased  to  burn  geome 
tries,  on  perceiving  that  the  sign  plus  might  not  be  popish, 
-and  that  circles  might  not  be  conjurer's  rings.  It  was  a  still 
better  day  when  men  saw  a  sovereign  die  and  yet  suspected 
neither  poison  nor  foul  play.  It  is  especially  pleasant  to  be 
.assured  that  the  American  name  which  is  our  own,  and  which 
will  be  in  the  mouths  of  millions  forever,  is  neither  a  monu 
ment  of  ingratitude,  nor  yet  owes  its  origin  to  fraud.  The 
word  America,  according  to  etymologists,  means  rich  in  work. 
May  the  American  continent,  in  all  its  parts,  forever  deserve 
its  name ! 


